Icy Crisis – another iceberg breaking off Antarctica

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According to NASA Earth Observatory, an iceberg about twice the size of New York City is about to break off from Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf.

A crack that was named the Halloween Crack, first appeared in late October 2016, and it is still stretching Eastward to an area known as the McDonald Icy Rumple. But the crack itself isn’t that of concerning, what is more of a threat is an existing rift a few kilometers below the Halloween Crack.

The rift was relatively stable, but in recent years the speed of the rift’s growth accelerated up to as much as 4 kilometers a year. If the Halloween Crack and the rift met in the future, then it is highly possible that the ice shelf will break off.

And if the ice shelf did break off, the total ice that will be lost from the Brunt Ice Shelf will at least be 1700 square kilometers (about 660 square miles). And it will cause more concerns of instabilities for the researchers that works at the British Antarctic Survey’s Halley Station that was built near the Brunt Ice Shelf.

This is not the only concern, but the concern is that once it broke off, the warm ocean current might eat it away bit by bit, as this is what is happening to the still-attached ice shelf, the Ross Ice Shelf.

Sea level rising are very dangerous, even just tiny bit can make a whole lot of difference. Such as causing some more dangerous hurricanes and typhoons, dropping more rains, floods, erosion, contamination of land with too much salt, plants and animals losing their habitats….etc.

So to even just save a little, please recycle and use less of your car! Saving the Earth is the same as saving ourselves.